Day 1558 - Forecast of Showers

Just recently, the kids are using the shower on the weekends.  During school days, we give them a good scrubbing in the tub, but we figure we can do a lighter wash on the weekends since all they really do is roll around in squirrel and dog urine at the park. 

We have heard of traumatic shower experiences from friends, so we were unsure whether or not Andrew and Emma would like it.  After all, these are the same kids who are occasionally terrified of "Ni-Hao Kai-lan" and Willie the Giant -- not to be confused with the Willie the Giant of 1970s adult films fame.  But surprisingly, the kids love it!

I think what the kids love about taking a shower is that we installed a hand-held shower head into our walk-in shower.  The shower head has about five or six settings, and the kids find all of them pretty hilarious.  I use the regular shower spray settings to wash and rinse them.  The kids crack up at the massage and pulsating settings.  And there is one really weak, single spray of water that they call the "pee-pee" setting. 

I've been giving them their showers on the weekend, and the entire routine is very peculiar to me because it is very reminiscent of your typical prison movie.  You round-up the unruly inmates and strip them down.  After cattle prodding them into the shower, you grab the water hose.  An intense stream of water pressure forces them into the corner of the shower, cowering and covering their eyes.  Afterwards, you toss them a towel to dry off.  And at the end, you give them their Flintstones vitamins, a cup of warm milk, and a few honey graham crackers to end the day.  Well, it's exactly like a prison movie except for that last part.

Personally, I think the key to making the shower a fun place for our kids was two-fold:  installing the hand-held shower head and the kids having each other.  The one thing I remember hating as a child was getting water in my eye -- although cigarette burns came in a close second.  Having the hand-held shower head allows you to control where the water lands on your child.  But who's to say if the water accidentally sprays your child's face if he is misbehaving.

And the one thing we find about having twins is that they often play off of one another.  So if one kid finds the shower super fun, the other kid doesn't want to miss out.  Of course there is also the yin and yang aspect of twins (as evidenced by the Wonder Twins' super powers), but thankfully there is no evidence of that with showering.